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Expat-Advice

International Living’s expat network is your key to a new life in a new country. Get real, honest advice from people just like you. Discover the tips, tricks, shortcuts, and strategies you can use to cut through red tape and improve your life overseas right away.

Read about and learn from real-life experiences our expats have had in their new home countries, from health care to taxes, earning an income overseas to buying real estate…and much more.

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Expat-Advice Archives

My journey helping Baby Boomers make the transition from career to portable income began almost 15 years ago. It started first with a few friends who were "aging out" of their careers like I was. They wanted to "pick my brain" on how to get moving in a direction that offered them more independence and flexibility without the inevitable age bias that was palpable in corporate and small-business Ame

Jillian Feibusch knew early on that there was a better life to be had other than living in the craziness of the San Francisco Bay Area. "I was working as a makeup artist for Chanel. Because of the high cost of living, daily commute, health issues, and the intense desire to do something more with my life, I moved to Costa Rica so I could breathe," she says.

If you are considering a move to the Mediterranean island of Malta, you’ll undoubtedly read about its year-round sunshine, crystalline waters, and the fact that English is an official language. However, there is so much more to love about this historical gem.

Do you sit at your computer, dreaming of a new life abroad? Don’t be intimidated if your little spot of heaven is in a country where you don’t speak the language. When I moved overseas to Ecuador, I hadn’t studied Spanish since university—over 20 years before. My knowledge consisted of a dim memory on how to conjugate verb endings.

Meetings almost swallowed me whole. Sucked the life out of me in jobs I loved and brought me to the brink of exhaustion. For much of my career I had jobs I really enjoyed, people I enjoyed working with, and general good times.

Just a 25-minute boat ride off the northern tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is a sliver of an island called Holbox (pronounced ol-bosh). In the Mayan language it means “black hole.” For the increasing number of visitors (as well as a small number of pioneering—mostly part-time expats and full-time business owners) who make their way here it’s a tropical getaway that’s quite different than spots like Cancún and Playa del Carmen on the nearby Riviera Maya.

As we begin our fourth year living in a beautiful condo steps from a sparkling Caribbean beach in Cancún, Mexico, we are incredibly grateful. Life here is truly wonderful and we are mindful of the fact that we live in a place that many call paradise.

The smell of jasmine follows me down the river on my bike ride from work. On any given night, you can find my husband, Rami, and me at the park across the street, sitting with our French Bulldog, looking out onto the city that I've chosen to call home.

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